Dundalk St Gerard's smash a provincial record at Leinster Relay Championships

What a fantastic day it was in a balmy Tullamore for the Leinster Juvenile Relay Championships. Dundalk St Gerard’s took 10 juvenile relay teams to compete, and it will go down as yet another day to remember for many of their young athletes.

First up were the U9 Boys - Tommy McCourt, Caden Kerrigan, Harry Trimble and Cian Rafferty. The boys ran a superb heat, placing first to automatically qualify for the final. And what a final it turned out to be.

Pushed all the way, the boys held on firmly, and not only did they take Leinster Gold, but they also set a new Championship Record in the process with a time of 1:07.29, beating the previous record that had been place since 2017. That would have been around the time these four lads were one or two years old.

The U11 girls were next to take to the track. Sadie Callan, Autumn Moran, Lucy Molloy and Katelynn Woods were first over the line in their heat to book their spot in the final. True to form, the girls romped home to first place in the final to take the second gold of the day.

Éabha Durnin, Grace Culligan, Hannah Reenan and Anna Gladysz represented the club in the Girls U10 event, and were unlucky not to qualify for the final, missing out by just over a second.

DSG were represented by two teams in the U10 Boys contest. Thomas Hughes, Fiachra Devin, Aidan Rafferty and Jack Cunningham ran a strong heat to qualify for the final, where they placed 5th overall. Pearse Murphy, Sean Kenny, Dylan McElarney and Louis Behan ran their hearts out in their heat too.

The U12 Girls contest was, as anticipated, a highly competitive and exciting event. Again, two teams lined up for St Gerard’s with both teams comfortably winning their respective heats.

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In what promised to be an exhilarating final, it did not disappoint, as the two DSG quartets went head-to-head over the lap of the track. Robyn Garland, Charlotte Trimble, Robyn Browne and Kallie Fisher took Gold with Caoimhe McEvoy, Chloe Browne, Aimee Quinn and Lucy Rogers claiming Silver.

Next to take their starting positions were the U12 Boys, with two teams wearing the red of St Gerard’s in the mix for this one too.

Patrick Murphy, Harry Smyth, Luke Duffy and Fane Kelly qualified from their heat for the final, as did Sam Curran, Ryan Dowd, Calvin McCourt and Evan Cheshire who took first place in their heat.

The final itself was a thriller, with Sam, Ryan, Calvin and Evan scooping a well-deserved Gold for their fabulous team performance in a very tight finish to the line.

The U14 Girls team of Megan Hughes, Anna Duffy, Aoife Murphy and Rebecca Trimble ran well to qualify from their heat for the final.